Testing The Times

So far, no indication of a paywall. Will this link work?

What the hell, let's steal something while we're there & no one's watching. (Our Code: We'll do anything we can get away w/, & we'll take anything that's not nailed down.)

In 2008, Parliament passed a law including jail sentences of up to 12 years for producing or distributing pornography, which is defined broadly as anything — a drawing, a movie or a body movement — deemed to violate “public decency.” An online pornography filter was imposed by the government last year. At the same time, Islamist vigilante groups like the Islamic Defenders Front, or F.P.I., have taken to the streets to enforce morality, sometimes violently, as the police have stood by.

The groups are bolstered by provisions in the antipornography law that empower private citizens to act. While ostensibly about morality, the campaign is seen by many liberals and minorities as a broader push to Islamize Indonesia.

The filmmakers at Maxima are unlikely cultural warriors. With a standard fare relying heavily on ghosts, gore and teen slapstick, their films are hardly high art, said Yoen K, one of the company’s producers.

Now, a glimpse into the future, once Michele Bachmann takes her country back & privatizes morality enforcement, Indonesian-style:

The last time Maxima failed to keep its intentions under wraps, things did not go well. In late 2010, when the producers were discovered to be planning to fly Ms. Ozawa in to promote a second film that had been shot in secret, “Carriage Ghost,” the F.P.I. struck, protesting at Maxima’s offices and sending members to Jakarta’s international airport with hopes of intercepting Ms. Ozawa and sending her back to Japan by force.

Mr. Hidayat’s attempt to defuse the situation with a meeting at Maxima’s offices was a failure.

On Dec. 1, trailed by television cameras and dressed in white turbans and crisp robes, the Jakarta leadership of the F.P.I. swept into the office, past a group of hired muscle brought in by the studio for security.

Facing Mr. Hidayat across a conference table, Salim Alattas, the F.P.I.’s Jakarta chief, denounced Ms. Ozawa as a poisonous influence on the nation’s morality. Mr. Hidayat had been warned twice to not bring her to Indonesia, Mr. Alattas said. There would be no third warning.

“We come with good intentions, but if you try to sneak Miyabi in, our intentions will no longer be good,” he said.

Another F.P.I. leader, Sahab Anggawi, lost his composure: “For destroying this country, you should be thrown out! Or have both your hands cut off! Then have both your feet cut off!”

Surely just an oversight he didn't threaten pecker-chopping as well.

NOT MUCH LATER: Links from web logs, Facebook, yada alleged to continue to work. Added dullness: The Just Another Blog (From L.A.)™ editorial offices get several emails from The Times daily, & half the time (an approximation, of course) we don't even bother to see what the objective & even-handed stories inside are. So we're curious if our email subscription will give us any privileges, or if we'll be clicking to a pay-up page. If not, & the hand of greed is extended, we can tell them to fuck off, & make a significant reduction to inbox traffic. Winning again.